The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), the UN Economic Commission for Southern Africa, the Southern Africa Trust and UNDP-South Africa hosted a regional conference on “Building Democratic Developmental States for Economic Transformation in Southern Africa” from the 20-22nd July 2015. The conference brought together over 50 participants representing academia, civil society organisations, and representatives of regional economic communities.

At a press conference in San Francisco, over one dozen community leaders from Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nigeria, Alaska, Texas, across California, and more gathered at a Chevron gas station to expose the harms of...